1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, method, computer program and recording medium for recommending content and, in particular, to an apparatus, method, computer program and recording medium for recommending, to a user, content that not only satisfies a preference of the user but also provides a surprise to the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Techniques of recommending users content such as a recorded broadcast program have been developed. Content recommendation is performed based on a similarity calculated through a matching process between a vector containing as a component an attribute contained in metadata of content and user preference information formed as a vector containing the same number of components as the metadata vector.
However, the recommendation of content having a high similarity with the user preference information does not always satisfy the user. For example, recommending content in drama genre to a user who frequently watches dramas appears reasonable. On the other hand, the same user could be satisfied with recommended news and variety show. If the same type of content is always recommended, the user may get bored and then feel refreshed if content slightly surprising to the user is recommended.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-202181 discloses a technique of recommending content having a surprise in a manner that reflects more in detail the preference of the user.
For example, recommendation is performed based on a similarity calculated through a matching process with a particular attribute of the user preference information weighted. With this arrangement, it is likely that content having a non-weighted attribute with low a similarity is recommended. Content that may be slightly surprising to the user can be recommended.